Trucking profit calculator: your monthly P&L, per truck and per fleet

By Edwin Horton · Updated October 2026

How the trucking profit calculator works

It's a one-page monthly P&L for one truck. Revenue at the top, every cost as a line, profit at the bottom.

• Total cost = driver pay + fuel + truck and trailer payments + insurance + maintenance and tires + other + dispatch (if included)
• Dispatch line = revenue × your tier (4% for two or more trucks, 5% for one, 7% while the MC is new)
• Net profit = revenue − total cost
• Margin = net profit ÷ revenue
• Operating ratio = total cost ÷ revenue
• Fleet profit = net profit per truck × trucks

EXAMPLE A truck grosses $24,000 in a month. Driver pay $6,800, fuel $6,400, payments $2,400, insurance $1,300, maintenance $1,100, other $900, and dispatch at 4% is $960. Total cost: $19,860. Profit: $4,140, a 17.3% margin and an operating ratio of 82.8%. Across two trucks, that's $8,280 a month.

The bar above the result shows each cost as a share of revenue, with profit in green at the end. When a cost line grows, you see exactly how much green it eats.

Operating ratio over and under 100%

Operating ratio over 100%: the truck loses money every month. Look first at revenue per mile and empty miles, then at the biggest fixed cost. Cutting a small line rarely fixes it.

Thin margin (under 10%): one repair or a slow month wipes it out. Build a reserve before adding a truck. Check your numbers against the box truck business profit calculator if you run 26 ft box trucks, since their cost lines look different.

Healthy margin: the question becomes whether a second truck would earn the same. Usually it doesn't at first: a new driver, a new truck payment and a learning curve. Model truck two with lower revenue for its first months.

Remember driver pay. If you drive and leave yourself out, the profit is really your paycheck. The truck driver pay calculator helps you set a fair number for yourself and future drivers.

Plan with it

Use this calculator to build the monthly pages of a truck business plan, and read our trucking market guide before you set revenue assumptions for the year. When you run two or more trucks, the small fleet dispatch page shows how a desk keeps each unit's P&L on track with a weekly report per truck.

Run it every month with real numbers from your books, not estimates. The first few months often show costs you didn't plan for: an insurance audit, a tire set, a tow. Owners who catch those early adjust rates or lanes before a thin month becomes a losing quarter. Keep each month's result so you can see the trend, and look at it per truck once you have two.

Use money collected, not money billed

• Use revenue collected for the month
• Include your own pay if you drive
• Add a repair reserve even in a month with no repairs
• Compare the result with the same month last year